Birthday Weekend

Every summer we have a big birthday weekend. Cherie's birthday, then Tiah's birthday and then 3 days later is Steve's birthday. This year we traveled to Seattle to celebrate our birthday's at a Mariner's Game. Tiah got the tickets - good seats right behind Ichrio - unfortuantely Ichrio took the night off as well as Ken Griffrey Jr., but it was a good game nontheless with the Mariner's beating the Kansas City Royals 6-3.

The next day we went for lunch at one of our family's favorite restaurants, Ivar's Salmon House on Lake Union. The weather was nice enough that several boats were making their way past the restaurant for our lunchtime entertainment. Including a tense moment when a older gentleman slipped and fell off his boat and a few men had to come to the rescue. Luckily he was saved and appeared unharmed from the experience.

Tiah

Summer Adventures!!!!

Summer might be coming to an end, but thats not slowing me down!!! August has been a busy month for me. I started the month off by meeting Tiah in the Tri-Cities for a day of wine tasting while our parents were out and about in Scotland! Then four of my friends and I went to Silverwood for the day which was a blast! We went on all of the waterslides, floated on the lazy river, and I went on my first rollar coaster! It was quite the day! even though I did get sunburned! Then two weeks later, I ventured off to Seattle to visit my best friend Joanna and to go to one of my sorority sisters weddings. The five day trip started off with our sister Kathryn's wedding in Lakewood. The wedding was at a beautiful garden and the bride looked just as beautiful! We had a great time and danced the night away with our sisters. After the wedding we headed back to Joanna's parents house in the Greenlake area of Seattle and we played tourist for the next 3 days! We went to the EMP, Seattle Center, window shopped at Pacific Place, Pike Street Market, the Waterfront, walked Green Lake, and so much more. I had a blast hanging out with Joanna and her family! While I was there I got to celebrate Joanna's 22nd birthday which was a lot of fun and got to meet a lot of her family. The five days I spent in Seattle went by too fast, but i had a really good time catching up with Joanna! The summers not over so maybe more adventures are in store for me!!!

Kelli

Stonehaven

I have just moved to Stonehaven. Caryn, Safina and myself all needed someplace to live for three months and since in Scotland you have to sign a 6 month lease we really had a hard time finding someplace. We have been blessed to have found a house in Stonehaven, just a 40 min bus ride from Aberdeen city center, that is very beautiful. We are one block from the beach and can see it from just out our front door. There are many bakeries that we are already planning to try. My room is very pink but it is really nice. For the next three months we will be writing out thesis so wont have to go to Aberdeen very much so are going to enjoy living in a small town while writing out papers.
~Meagan

Holiday with Mom and Dad

Mom, Dad and I had a great time whene they were here in Scotland. I got to play tour guide and take them all over. We spent the first few days here in Aberdeen and I showed them about. We took day trips to Balmoral Castle, the summer home of the Queen, and to Perth to go to Scone Palace. Then I took them down to Carlisle England for a few days as a birthday present trip. We got to go out to two of the old Roman Forts and got to stand on Hadrian's Wall. The landscape was amazing down there and I have decided that I want to backpack the 80 miles of the wall. It looks like it will be a really nice walk. In Carlisle we ate some really good Italian food and went to a Greek restaurant that was amazing. We came back up to Aberdeen and spent a few more days, did some shopping and walking around. I attempted to take them to Duthie park but one wrong turn and they didn't believe that I knew where I was going and decided to turn back. We did make it out to Hazelhead park, on the bus, but once there it started raining so we did a quick walk around the Queen Mum's rose garden and headed to the canteen and got a cup of tea and a sweet treat. Next we went up to Inverness and took a tour of Loch Ness and the castle Urqhart which is along the Loch. We did more shopping in Inverness at the gift shops. From Inverness we headed to Fort William. We did a private car tour in Fort William which took us through Glen Nevis (Braveheart was filmed here), up to Spean Bridge, through the Cameron land (a Cameron family museum), to Glenfinnan (where we saw the Glenfinnan Viaduct which is the bridge in Harry Potter, and saw the church that is in Made of Honour), and along Loch Linnhe. The tour was really amazing and well worth the trip. We headed back to Aberdeen and it was time for packing for Mom and Dad to return to the US. It was a great holiday and very relaxing.

~Meagan

Perth

So I am a bit behind with telling everyone what I am up to. June 22 I began a placement in Perth doing stroke rehabilitation in the stroke unit at Perth Royal Infirary. I was not really looking forward to it thinking that I was not going to like that area of physio but ended up really enjoying it and learning lots. It is not an area of physio that I would like to specialize in but it was a great experience and am really glad I now have the background knowledge, it will come in handy if I ever work in acute wards in a hospital. I did really well on the placement and managed to get a B on it. While in Perth I did a little exploring of the city and walked out to Scone Palace. Scone is where the Scottish King's and Queen were crowned. The palace is lived in by the Earl of Mansfield and family. The stone of destiny is no longer in place there but there is a replica. The one that they believe is the real one that was stolen and then returned to Scotland many years later is in Edinburgh but tests on the stone are looking like it is not actually the real one. If that is the case then no one knows where the real stone of destiny is. Also at the Palace is the David Dougallas Tree which is a tree that was planted from a seed that was brought to Scotland from the Columbia River.

~Meagan

Softball World Series

This past week has been the Little League Softball World Series hosted by Alpenrose Dairy here in Portland. This years champions was the Northeast team from Georgia; a group of very skilled young softball players.

I volunteered all week as a scorekeeper with a friend of mine. It was a lot of fun we were able to meet teams from all over the world - our favorite teams were from Italy & Curacao. We also got to watch several really good softball games.

Tiah

World Travelers

Update on our family's world travelers. Mom & Dad are back home in Washington. They had a wonderful trip traveling throughout Scotland & England. They are taking a short rest before heading out on a road trip to Idaho to visit Dad's favorite restaurant Cracker Barrel.

Summer Concert

Yesterday, I attended the Portland Summer Concert Series in the Rose Garden outdoor amphitheater. Leave it to Oregon to have a outdoor concert almost rained out in the middle of August. But this being the northwest the show did go on even in the pouring rain.

There was two performances, a Butoh Theatre - which is a traditional Japanese movement. And the Portland Taiko, which is traditional drumming.

It was a very enjoyable evening even with the rain.

Tiah

Knitting Convention

This weekend was the Sock Summit, a knitting convention for sock knitters. This year's conference was held in Portland. I was unable to attend any of the classes, but I was able to attend a spinning demonstration, visit the sock museum, and look around the Marketplace.

The traveling sock museum was a little disappointing. I was hoping they would have actual socks knitting from various times in history. Instead they had sock patterns from throughout history and reproduction of the socks. The item that did interest me the most was a pattern from the Red Cross from WWII for knitting socks for the soldiers in Europe, along with a skein of earn that went with the pattern. What a wonderful & personal war time effort knitting socks for the military.

Tiah

Koren Taco's

Today is the day that the Koren Taco truck, Koi Fusion comes to campus. It has a wide following around campus and the staff gets really excited to see it drive up. They really are amazing. Corn tortilla's, beef, pork or tofu in a Koren marinate, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumber, cilantro, & lime.

Tiah

heat wave

For the past week the heat wave in the pacific northwest has been almost unbearable. Portland had record high temperatures, last Wednesday it actually got up to 111 degrees F. Unfortunately I don't have air conditioning like most houses in Portland and the heat was a little much. We don't usually have many days that reach 100 F, but last week we had 7. This week is suppose to be better, it should be in the 90's & then upper 80's which is what a normal Portland summer is.

This weekend I did meet KelliJean at our parents house in eastern Washington. We both enjoyed sitting inside a nice air conditioned house

Tiah